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AT&T to offer new service to some

By LEWIS DELAVAN

Staff writer

AT&T will begin offering its U-verse service next month in some Hot Springs Village subdivisions, the utility told Property Owners’ Association members at the board of directors work session last Wednesday.

U-verse will first be offered around Nov. 15 to 1,300 homes in 20 subdivisions.

The U-verse package offers a subscriber’s choice of telephone, Internet and television service, using fiber-optic cable. AT&T has installed fiber optics along DeSoto Boulevard.

A wireless digital video recorder, which the representatives said is an AT&T exclusive, would allow TV service subscribers to use any TV they own, through a wireless network.

Some of the content can also be viewed through a tablet or laptop computer.

Also, 350,000 titles are available online through U-verse – some 50,000 were added last month. And subscribers would have access to AT&T’s more than 30,000 wireless hotspots

AT&T seeks exclusive marketing rights for its initial years. Under its request, other companies could provide Internet service, but couldn’t market the services at POA venues such as a business fair or at the POA office.

The company is offering to pay the POA $25 for each U-verse voice installation, $50 per U-verse Internet installation and $75 per TV installation, if exclusive marketing is approved, Nauman said.

Board director Frank Leeming asked Nauman if U-verse would ever be available throughout the Village.

“Today, I have to say no,” Nauman said. Technology is the limiting factor — U-verse can only travel so far. Future technology could conceivably change that.

Assistant general manager Linda Mayhood said high-speed Internet service would be a marketing tool for the Village, and for developers.

As well as 1,300 homes, U-verse will initially pass by 1,700 lots. “If people build, they will be able to get it,” Mayhood said. “That’s important when people are looking to build.”

High-speed communication has become as basic a utility as electricity and water, Leeming said. “If it isn’t available in all parts of the Village, our efforts to lure folks here will be hampered,” he said.

Director Tom Bryant asked for AT&T’s proposed agreement with the POA to state exactly what it would do, and what others couldn’t do.

Nauman told director Harv Shelton that once U-verse service starts, Villagers could enter their address in the AT&T website to see if service is available.

POA member Diane Upchurch asked if U-verse phone service would be available during power outages, as landline phones do, or if it would go out, as happens when cellular towers lose power.

Nauman said U-verse uses voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, and retains communication during power outages.

AT&T already offers digital subscriber line, or DSL, Internet service in parts of the Village.

Suddenlink Communications offers cable Internet service in parts of the Village, mostly in Garland County. “Some in the east end can’t get Suddenlink,” president Keith Keck said.

The AT&T representatives received general applause at the end of their presentation.